Mapped: The Drink Driving Legal Limits For Every Country

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Many of us enjoy a tipple at some point or another, and being on vacation is often an excuse to drink a little more than usual. But while most of us know the drink drive limits in our own countries, what do we know about the place we’re vacationing in?

Do you know the limit?

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While it’s true to say the only safe way to approach driving is to drink no alcohol at all beforehand, many people will still have one drink as long as their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is below the legal limit. But those legal limits can vary dramatically from country to country - sometimes just driving across a land border could put you over the limit and on the wrong side of the law.

And of course, we’re not just talking about straight away - a huge number of DUI cases are ‘the morning after the night before’, where big nights out can mean you’re still over the legal limit when you get behind the wheel the next morning.

Cheers! Just make sure you take a taxi home…

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The penalties for drink driving also vary dramatically from country to country, ranging from fines to jail time. And in some, the legal limit is often lower if you’re a young or commercial driver – and penalties can be more severe. Other countries, like Barbados, Togo and the Marshall Islands have no BAC driving limits at all, though they do have dangerous driving laws (even if they’re often only loosely enforced).

If you’re heading away soon on a road trip or are just renting a car to get around on your next vacation, you may want to take a look at this illustrated map from Discover Car Hire that charts the world’s drink driving limits by colour. It reveals some interesting stats, especially if you’re road tripping through Central America or eastern Europe, where limits can change across land borders in the blink of an eye. Most of all though it should encourage drivers to think about what they’re drinking and how it might affect them so they can abide by the laws of that country and most importantly, have a safe trip.

The drink driving legal limits for almost every country in the world.

DiscoverCarHire.com

While the US and Canada are consistent with a 0.08% limit, head south through Central and South America and it slowly drops to 0.05% in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina to a ‘dry law’ in Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil that allows only for trace alcohol from mouthwashes and cough medicines. Sup a cold beer on Copacabana beach and then drive back to your hotel and you’re committing a serious offense.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland share the same 0.08% legal limit as the US, but Scotland has a slightly lower 0.05% limit. Head to the continent and it’s largely the same as Scotland to the south, but motor east and you’ll soon arrive in the zero tolerance zones of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Driving after a drink in the Gulf states and Middle East would not be a good idea at all. While some like Saudi Arabia have a total ban on the consumption of any alcohol whether you’re driving or not, almost all from Qatar to the UAE take a zero tolerance approach with serious repercussions if you’re caught. Perhaps not quite as bad as in Malaysia though, where if you’re caught drink driving your spouse can be jailed too - even if they weren’t in the car at the time!